Competitive games like League of Legends, Dota 2 and Overwatch are at their best when you play them... competitively. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of fun to be had tooling around in casual play - relaxed environments are great for hanging out with friends, or just being silly. It's how I spend 95% of my time playing those sort of games. That other 5%…

There are more wonderful games being released on PC each month than ever before. In such a time of plenty, it's important that you spend your time as wisely as possible. Thankfully, we're here to help. What follows are our picks for the best PC games ever made.

'Terrible' only in the sense of their gaming capability. Honestly, I'm sure your laptop is lovely to look at and it was definitely a extremely sensible idea to spend all that money on it instead of buying a holiday or helping to save the pandas. Truth is, though, that playing recently-released games on the vast majority of laptops is about as effective as starting an…

As part of their ever-more-complex beast of a roadshow, League of Legends [official site] developer Riot have put together The Riftwalk. It's a physical tribute to their game which converts an area into a kind of curated photo opportunity, showcase and archive which brings together fan creations and official artwork under one roof. So it's a private museum of sorts which pays tribute to the…

Visual effects in games intrigue me - they contribute so much to the flavour of a character or an experience but often they're at their best when you're not consciously registering them - they need to complement and harmonise and blend... In a game like League of Legends [official site] they need to communicate character, telegraph attacks, fit in with the established vocabulary of more…

Developers imitate each other, as do writers, musicians and artists, and Blizzard are the best in the business at it. No other company is so good at distilling the sweat of another’s brow and refining it into pure, unadulterated joy. Yet, while it’s easy to see in Overwatch the objective-based gameplay of Team Fortress 2, the team dynamics of League of Legends or the creative…

After five weeks of League of Legends' World Championships ping-ponging across the United States from venue to venue and gradually shedding teams the final contenders, SK Telecom T1 and Samsung Galaxy, went head-to-head at the Staples Center in Los Angeles for the deciding best-of-five. I appreciate a bunch of you might be waiting to watch the rebroadcast or be saving up the VODs to watch…

League of Legends' World Championships tournament is about to reach its 2016 conclusion with the Grand Finals in Los Angeles' Staples Center. The finalists comprise two of the LCK's top teams (that's the Korean domestic league, in case you're new to professional LoL), SK Telecom T1 and Samsung Galaxy. They will be playing for over $2m* as well as the "best in the world" title,…

This weekend saw reigning champions, SK Telecom T1, take on Korean League's domestic champions ROX Tigers in a spectacular best-of-five which immediately earned a place as one of the greatest matches of any League of Legends World Championships to date. It's definitely the best I've seen, and it occupied my thoughts for most of the following day. I even found myself pondering bits of it…

Here's a quick and dirty guide to this week's League of Legends World Championships semifinals match-ups if you've not been following the story so far! The TL;DR if even a quick and dirty guide is too much reading is that there will be at least one Korean team in the finals no matter how the weekend matches play out and Europe's path towards the Summoner's…

The semi-finalists for League of Legends' 2016 World Championships have been determined thanks to a long weekend of Chicago-based MOBA-ing for the quarterfinals. But did the wildcards make it through? Are Europe and North America still in with a shot at the title? Did anyone manage to elbow SKT aside on their way to the Summoner's Cup? I'll let you know who got through after…

League of Legends' [official site] tentpole/flagship event, the World Championships, is ramping up the pressure as we reach the knockout stage. There's a $1m top prize and a ridiculously enormous cup at stake but what if you've not been keeping up with the story so far? That's where this primer comes in! Here's what you need to know if you're only just dipping your toes…

Earlier this week Riot announced its first foray into boardgames with Mechs vs Minions - a co-op tabletop experience set in the League of Legends [official site] universe. If you're a boardgamer you'll get the basic concept from "Robo Rally meets Descent" with a Legacy-esque campaign component. If you're not, probably the easiest way to put this is that you're working together to program little…

Yorick, perhaps League of Legends most awkward character, is almost at the end of an in-depth makeover. He'll emerge from his champion update cocoon after a stint on the Public Beta Environment as the Shepherd of Souls to [hopefully] acclaim and popularity, much as Tai emerged from her fashion makeover at the hands of Cher and Dion in Clueless to become part of the elite…

League Of Legends' [official site] Lead Gameplay Designer, Andrei Meddler van Roon, was in Birmingham over the weekend as the UK's huge LAN event, Insomnia, was also playing host to League Fest – a dedicated League Of Legends event. I couldn't get up there but I managed to get a bit of time with Meddler on the phone and, after recommending the Sea Life Centre,…

While in China for the League of Legends [official site] Mid-Season Invitational, I spent some time talking to Whalen Rozelle. He's Director of Esports over at Riot and a lot of the conversation ended up being about creating connections. That's a focal point for League of Legends at the moment – finding ways to forge personal connections between the professional scene and the viewers and…

Hello there. This week, I'm writing not just as an RPG columnist, but as president of the newly formed League Of Folks Who Don't Really Play MOBAs But Are Bizarrely Hooked On All The Trappings. As far as I can tell, our membership is roughly a billion people and counting. That's what happens when the likes of Blizzard and Riot spend literally tens of dollars…

Reading through the new Ask Riot thingummy where Riot employees will address common League of Legends [official site] questions, the very first question looks at the practice of smurfing. This is not the process of dying yourself blue and donning a Phrygian cap as some sort of pre-game ritual (although I now have a new feature idea - GRAHAM!).

The final of League of Legends' Mid Season Invitational saw Counter Logic Gaming represent North America (a milestone in Riot tournament progession for the region) against South Korea's SK Telecom T1. But would LoL wunderkind Lee 'Faker' Sang-hyeok get to complete his trophy collection with an MSI win or would CLG be able to best the SKT squad and take home the prize for the…

The second day of MSI 2016 semifinals at Shanghai Oriental Sports Center had North America's Counter Logic Gaming taking on the LMS's Flash Wolves. Each side had surpassed general expectations in the tournament but a peek at their group stage match history gave CLG the edge, both in overall performance but also because the pair's earlier face-offs had both ended in CLG victories. Would a…